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Is content aggregation good SEO?

I didn't see this topic specifically addressed here: what's the current thinking on using content aggregation for SEO purposes?

I'll use flavors.me as an example. Flavors.me lets you set up a domain that pulls in content from a variety of services (Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, RSS, etc.). There's also a limited ability to publish unique content as well.

So let's say that we've got MyDomain.com set up, and most of the content is being drawn in from other services. So there's blog posts from WordPress.com, videos from YouTube, a photo gallery from Flickr, etc.

How would Google look at this scenario? Is MyDomain.com simply scraped content from the other (more authoritative) sources? Is the aggregated content perceived to "belong" to MyDomain.com or not? And most importantly, if you're aggregating a lot of content related to Topic X, will this content aggregation help MyDomain.com rank for Topic X?

3 Responses

First, search engines are going to see scraped duplicate content. Second, if you add any ads at all, you will only increase the odds you will be viewed as a profit-seeking-curated-content farmer which may as well be equivalent to spam.

Panda and Penguin were released to deal with sites that provide no-value content aggregation.

If you aren't adding value, don't do it.

OK, all that being said, I do find Flavors.me interesting.

I think it might work as a personal website used to drive traffic through to other channels. Like About.me, but with a bit more oomph!

Provide a solid profile (unique content providing value) that points to the places I spend my time on the Web.

Ask the thousands of sites that were content aggregating that got hammered with Pandas content updates. Aggregated content is duplicate content inherently . It isn't unique and original and creates a negative impact to a sites SEO. Now if the value is to not generate SEO but generate traffic that can be monetized in another way, go for it........but if you want to create solid SEO, STAY AWAY.

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